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Grover Cleveland’s Hurricane

A DEVASTATING storm slams into New York City; within days, another hits the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. The president refuses to allow the federal government to coordinate relief efforts. No, it’s not a glimpse into a future without the Federal Emergency Management Agency under a Romney administration. It’s what happened in August 1893, and the consequences of the government’s inaction offer valuable lessons today.

On Tuesday, Aug. 22, in the Atlantic Ocean, four hurricanes were swirling simultaneously, an event never before recorded, and one that would not happen again until 1998. Two would peter out, but over Wednesday night, one of the hurricanes slammed into New York City. At least 30 people were killed. A storm surge swept across southern Brooklyn and Queens, destroying virtually everything in its path. Railroad tracks near Brighton Beach were washed away, along with bath houses and sections of boardwalk.

Four days later, on Aug. 27, the last, even more powerful hurricane made landfall near Savannah, Ga., devastating coastal island communities. As many as 2,000 people were killed, many swept out to sea, never to be seen again. Corn and cotton crops were ruined, and wells were contaminated with seawater.

In the wake of these twin tragedies, however, President Grover Cleveland did nothing.

Cleveland, a Democrat and former governor of New York, opposed government intervention in natural disasters. In his first term he had vetoed a bill that would have given drought-stricken Texas farmers $10,000 for seeds. “Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character,” Cleveland wrote in his veto message.

Given his aversion to “paternalism,” it’s not surprising that the federal government was unresponsive to calls for assistance after the two hurricanes struck. When the South Carolina senator Matthew Butler asked Secretary of War (and Cleveland confidante) Daniel Lamont for help, Mr. Lamont responded that it would be unconstitutional for the government to provide direct aid without an act of Congress — though he did offer to lend some spare tents to the homeless.

Into the void stepped Clara Barton, the 72-year-old nurse who had founded the American Red Cross 12 years earlier. Almost single-handedly, Ms. Barton organized relief efforts — distributing food and clothing and supervising the construction of new homes (first for widows and the infirm). Her heroic work, especially in the South, saved countless thousands from disease and starvation.

Grover Cleveland paid a price for his inaction. At the time of the hurricanes, the country was mired in an economic crisis now known as the Panic of 1893. Cleveland’s position, while hardly unorthodox — many Democrats and Republicans at the time shared a similar distaste for government intervention — did nothing to endear him to a public weary of financial misery. He did not run for a third term in 1896. By then he was so unpopular that even his own party repudiated him. At the Democratic convention in Chicago that year, delegates hurled more insults at Cleveland than at the Republican presidential nominee, William McKinley.

Grover Cleveland was never accused of sacrificing his principles for political expediency. But in politics, sometimes principle has a price.

Matthew Algeo is the author of “The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth.”